#but his flaws are tragic

[neverenoughmarauders]

In defence of Remus Lupin

On behalf of James Potter who is unable to come to his aid on account of being dead.

I don’t for a second believe James would blame Remus for not checking in on Harry.

Firstly, Sirius proves in the way he questions Harry in POA that he believes Harry to be reasonably happy with his aunt and uncle (which is odd given Sirius sees him run away but nevermind). Why would Remus think any differently? He will have believed Harry to be well taken care of. Remus also trusted Dumbledore like nobody else. If Dumbledore believed Harry to be taken care of, why would Remus doubt it?

Remus should still have checked you say, and yes, had he been healthy, I’m sure James would have agreed.

Which brings me to secondly. Throughout the series we see how little Remus values himself. He doesn’t truly seem to believe it worthwhile to fight to keep his position as DADA teacher, when Harry and his class does. Remus believes that his wife and unborn child would be better off without him. And I’m sure he believed Harry to be better off without him too.

I’m sick of people not understanding how real this feeling of people being better off without him feels like to Remus. He’s shunned all his life for what he is. Even the more progressive people don’t want their children or loved ones around werewolves (as proven by Molly in OOTP at St. Mungo’s). Tonks becomes a target to the woman who does eventually kill her because she married Remus. (There’s a real question whether Tonks could have survived the battle of Hogwarts if Bella hadn’t been so set on murdering her). Would running away have helped Tonks or Teddy? No, but that’s missing the point. Remus believes it would. And Remus would have believed Harry was better off without him.

I can’t possibly know what James would have felt but from what we see of James and Sirius’ friendship with Remus, I think they knew better than anyone how inferior Remus felt, how dangerous and contaminated he believed himself to be.

This assertion is not completely unfounded because so did everyone else. As much as I hate the HBP scene when the whole room talks Remus into marrying Tonks, and as much as JKR does an awful job at selling their story as anything other than a doomed, random and forced relationship - the idea is meant to be that they are both in love with each other. The idea is meant to be that the other adults aren’t pressuring Remus into doing something he doesn’t want to do. It’s meant to be them knowing how much Remus will not date or marry the person he loves because he does not consider himself worthy of it. It should have been a scene that was one more data point on how much Remus’ condition affected his self-worth and life choices. A scene in which in the absence of Sirius and James and Dumbledore, the other people in Remus’ life step up to remind him he’s good enough!

In my view it fails to deliver this completely (and it’s a real tragedy as JKR finally takes time to elaborate on just how affected Remus is by his condition), but ignoring the execution for a second - if Minerva, Molly, Arthur and Tonks could see how much Remus would never believe himself good enough, then James and Sirius would know it a thousand times more.

Of course the confident fanon version is a different story. He should have and would have checked up on Harry. But hating canon Remus for not checking up on Harry shows a lack of empathy in my view. Rewriting the story so that Remus was forbidden to see Harry takes away from the tragedy that is Remus’ life: this idea that he believed the world would be better without him - when so many people know it would be infinitely worse.

[bougiebutchbinch]

Do u ever just think about. Eury sitting on the beach. Waiting for Odysseus after warning him not to go after Circe. Wondering if he'll ever see him again

[salty-an-disco]

I disagree with Narrator in a very fundamental and philosophical level, but you know, even if I agreed 100% with his worldview and the reality he wants to bring about, I’d still think he’s wrong for taking matters into his own hands and changing THE VERY FABRIC OF REALITY affecting people in the entire universe, simply because HE thinks he knows what best for the world.

Like– that’s why I find him so fascinating, it’s not only the fear of death or disgust towards the very concept of change (tho that is very funny and interesting in its own right), but the utter arrogance to champion himself Savior of the World without EVER considering that maybe– just maybe, people might not agree with what he plans to do.

Like. Hubris indeed, and he even has the gall to say, “you can still do what you must and kill her” when we call him out on it. Like. Wow. I want to study this guy under a microscope.

[thelunarfairy]

The painful love

Nene's dream is to be loved by someone, because she was always mistreated by boys…. she gave up her life, "her marriage" to save her best friend, and she will give up all of that if she is by Hanako's side , these are all just details, it's not about marriage, it's about her loving him.

He's a ghost, he can't get married, he can't have children, he can't grow old with her, he can't even leave school, she won't be able to introduce him to her parents, she won't be able to meet his family, no one can see him . All Nene has is the great love she feels for him, and what wins over Hanako most is her desire to stay.

One of the forms of love, regardless of whether it is friendship or romance, is for someone to "stay" for you. Someone chooses to be by your side, even with your story, your past, your hurts and flaws. Nene stood by him, even when no one else did, and this contrasts greatly with his relationship with Tsukasa.

Tsukasa wants to leave, yes, to save Hanako, but Hanako doesn't want to be saved, he wants to be forgiven, he wants to be loved, he wants the people he loves to stay. So, when Nene went after him on the far shore, even though he scolded her, he couldn't hold back any longer. Because she did all that because she wanted to be with him, when not even the person he loves most, Tsukasa, had decided to leave.

She is the only person who wants to stay by his side without thinking twice, no matter what she has to do, she will be there. Even now, even going back in time, she still remembers him, remembers the desire she had to see him in the audience watching her in the play.

It's ironic, because Nene wanted a handsome boy for everyone to see, she wanted to use the boys as a trophy, not to show off, but to show the boys who were mean to her that someone can love her, even with this "flaw." "superficial and futile.

But in the end she fell in love with a ghost, the ordinary boy who is not popular, who no one can see. That was something I loved about the construction of the story, how Aidairo didn't give Nene what she wanted, but what she needed.

To be loved by the boy who finds her "flaw" attractive, to be loved by the boy who protects her, who listens to her, who is there for her. Being loved by the imperfect boy who has his own story and who makes mistakes, who is not the prettiest guy in the class, but who truly loves, no matter how much he tries to hide it, no matter how mysterious he is.

He is afraid that she will find out about him, because he doesn't want her to leave, almost like a silent request "please don't go.." Hanako is a boy who seems to have been abandoned a lot, maybe it only happened to Tsukasa, but even Let it just be him, Tsukasa is the love of his life, not in a romantic way, but he is the person he loves most, and he is gone.

The love between these two is tragic, but true, seeing how the two complement each other, even with the "flaws" and mistakes they make. It's an intense, true love, a continuous struggle between being together or separated by destiny.

Yes, destiny, it is he who is manipulating everything, their destiny is not to be together, but they are fighting against it, even if they have to break the world.

And, I hope, they break the world together with Tsukasa. Because he loves Amane, because he didn't want to leave him, but he had to, it was the only option, because he loves Amane so much that he wants him to live and be happy, even without him.

But for Amane, there is no happiness without Tsukasa, and now, there is no happiness without Nene either.

[thestobingirlie]

there are two aspects of jonathan’s character that seem to get widely ignored by the fandom, and i think it’s one of the reasons his character seems to be misunderstood a lot.

the first being that he was a parentified child (i think a lot of people ignore this because they aren’t willing to accept that joyce isn’t the best mother in the universe, but that’s a different conversation lol). he had to step in and help parent will after his dad left, and tried to intercept to make sure will didn’t see or suffer from the abuse he and his mum did. it’s one of the reasons he’s grown to withdraw from society and put people down. he couldn’t relate to other kids his age, so he secluded himself from them.

the second aspect of his character is that jonathan did, in part, parentify himself. he takes it upon himself to work more hours even when his mum has asked him not to. he’s refusing to go to college despite the fact that they’re clearly more comfortable in life now because he doesn’t know how to let go of the identity that he’s been shielding himself with for most of his life. and a big part of the reason he can’t drop that identity is because he’s convinced himself that it’s what separates him from everyone else. it’s what elevates him above them. he’s not a vapid high schooler that cares about what everyone thinks of them. he’s better than that. but if he loses his status as will’s big brother, who is he? (i think that’s part of the reason he jumps so quickly back into disparaging steve with nancy. steve represents everything jonathan has convinced himself he’s above, and even while he’s lying to nancy about going to college, mocking steve is some form of normalcy for him. even with everything going on in his life, at least he’s still better than steve, right?)

there are a lot of people within the fandom, even his fans, who solely identify jonathan by his position as will’s big brother, and arguably it is hard to examine his character beyond that both because jonathan himself identifies with it and because the duffers have been fairly lax in giving jonathan any other defining characteristics. but idk. i just think it’s kinda sad that even among people that love his character, jonathan never gets to grow beyond the role he was forced to take up as a small child.

[hylialeia]

not going to bug people in the tags but it is (legitimately!) interesting to see a character in asoiaf who is so clearly meant to be the traditional fantasy red herring chosen prince, and to see people - including the readers! - gravitate towards that romanticism, often unquestioning. I think one of asoiaf's major motifs being "ruling is hard" (see GRRM's thoughts on Tolkien) and that consistently showing up across every pov regardless of their morality or ideals or circumstances, yet both people in universe and in fanbase stalwartly believing that surely this does not or will not apply to their ruler... now, that IS fascinating

[fuckedupwizard]

someone: it's such a disservice to shen jiu's character to defang him and act like he isn't really a child abuser, or the abuse wasn't that bad, or he didn't know what he was doing, and to take away the bitterness and resentment that is a huge part of his personality. him being kind of twisted is exactly what makes him fascinating. his suffering was utterly tragic but he should not have perpetrated it onto another.

me: YES! EXACTLY! THANK YOU

someone: that's why i wish people who like him could just admit that he sucks, and he's totally pure irredeemable scum with no good qualities, and his character is NOT deep or complex. he didn't even really care about yue qingyuan, he was too selfish for that, he just wanted him for protection and when that failed to guilt him for the rest of their lives. and no universe would change this, he probably kicks puppies for fun, and

me: ok hold on now. shut up?

[blasphemousclaw]

If you don't mind me picking your brain, howdya think Rykard went from "ruthless justiciar" and head of the Inquisition to "These pagans are cool actually"

oh my god YES I was hoping someone would ask me about this one day because I think about this a lot

Essentially, I don’t think Rykard was ever truly an Erdtree zealot for several reasons.

Firstly, he has a unique background for someone who enforced Erdtree law: his mother is a legendary sorcerer, who once fought against the armies of the Erdtree in battle. Growing up as Rennala’s son, we know he distinguished himself as a talented glintstone sorcerer, an art once seen by the Erdtree forces as heretical. Basically, Rykard has heresy in his blood — I think his background gives him an inherent sympathy to other practices deemed heretical to the Golden Order. We know he developed an interest in reviving the “ancient hexes” of Mt. Gelmir, an interest which is specifically identified in the text as stemming from his mother’s influence:

“After discovering the ancient hexes of Gelmir, Rykard, son of Queen Rennala, brought them back into practical use as new forms of sorcery.”

Rykard comes from a long line of heretics, who instilled in him a sorcerer’s curiosity.

So why did Rykard become praetor in the first place? We don’t technically know at what point Radagon left Rennala, but I think it makes the most sense if Rykard was propelled to his position as praetor after his father became Elden Lord. While married to Rennala, Radagon was regarded as a “mere champion,” with Rykard and his siblings being royalty in Liurnia alone… it makes more sense that he’d rise to the position of chief justiciar in Altus after Radagon married Marika and he became a demigod step-child. Basically, he nepo-babied his way to a powerful government position… a position that gave him a prestigious reputation, a foothold in altus, and a standing army — more power than he ever could have achieved if he stayed in Liurnia, since his sister Ranni is stated to be the sole heir of Caria (Caria was likely matriarchal; it doesn’t seem like Ranni’s brothers stood to inherit much of anything).

There is also a relevant detail from the Blasphemous Claw description:

“On the night of the dire plot, Ranni rewarded Praetor Rykard with these traces. Should the coming trespass one day transpire, they would serve as a last-resort foil, allowing Rykard to challenge Maliketh the Black Blade, the black beast of Destined Death.”

Rykard colluding with Ranni before the Night of the Black Knives shows that Rykard’s later treason was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but something pre-meditated. Ranni rewarding Rykard with traces of the Rune of Death with the intention to challenge Maliketh indicates that the siblings shared talks of treason leading up to this event — while Rykard was still praetor.

Rykard performed his job with brutal efficiency to the point that he garnered a “ruthless” reputation. But I don’t think he ever did this job out of pure loyalty to the Erdtree; rather, I think he did this job because he will do absolutely anything to achieve power and to gain the upper hand. I think he always intended to build up strength so that he could eventually topple the Golden Order which he so chafed under and place himself in charge; a “worthy sovereign.” And I believe that just as Rykard’s position as praetor was a means to this end, so too was his obsession with the Great Serpent — an obsession that spiraled out of control into “mere greed” for power.

[year2000electronics]

KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!!!

[yavin42]

just finished the second season of black sails and i gotta say i understand why it makes queers go feral

[galeofquarterdeep]

Cal Kestis always seeing the good in people is my Roman Empire. It costs him so much and he still does it because that's just how he is. It's him.

He puts himself between Jaro Tapal and the Clones because he not only want to protect his master, he believes that the clones wouldn't hurt an unarmed child.

And yet, he understands. He tells BD-1 this. That he knows that it wasn't the Clones' fault. Somehow, he understands and he's able to forgive them.

He trusts Trilla to make the right choice in the end. He sees something in her that no one else was able to see.

He himself knows that his habit to always see the good in everyone or believe that it's there will someday either be his death or be the death of someone he loves. And it happens ... He loses someone who means so much to him.

And he still sees the good until he has no other choice but to believe it's gone. He didn't pull the trigger at first. He hesitated because he still hoped.

[nthflower]

Kim bestie why your political opinions so shit 😭😭

[hella1975]

complicated relationship with taob be damned i have never peaked higher than i did when i was studying tragedies for my english class and wrote the fever dream chapter

[spunkykirby]

someone did make an interesting point somewhere else

people inflate unrealistic levels of aggression between zhongli and neuvillette on a such personal level when in reality all of the negative projections we're conflating with these two (regarding the dragon-archon clash) would likely be more associated with Ei (or at least at the heightened level powerscalers project on neuvili) 😭

this isn't an Ei hate post, just pointing out her own past mistakes and flaws that would clash with the crying dragon at a higher level than some other archons

[beansterpie]

rewatching LoK, i'm being reminded how much I dislike the.... the brothers, mako and bolin, yanno? they're such underwhelming characters on basically every level. it'd almost be impressive if they weren't in every episode and didn't annoy me so much ugh

[wickmitz]

was once again glancing at the lackadaisy reddit and i genuinely feel a little crazy about how people perceive the wick and mitzi arc from retinue to sneakthief? or, honestly, their arc in general. to act as though wick is some patron saint greatly amuses me when it’s implied by mitzi and the comic that wick had either proposed a business deal himself or had been very amendable to talk about it after their kiss and / or other intimate acts last night … mitzi didn’t pull this out of her ass! she did not put this upon wick randomly. it was something they mutually agreed to do, and given how hard wick tries to wiggle away from the conversation without outright saying no ( aka giving excuses to stall ) i would even guess he essentially already agreed to such a deal, in the throes of passion, only for him to not fully mean it later. this doesn’t mean it was right at all for her to then steal from wick! this isn’t me excusing that! but wick isn’t some poor meow meow either in this scenario, even if he is the ‘lesser’ evil overall.

and tbh i also think the conversation was doomed from the start : wick was horrifically exhausted and was still too shaken up by rocky’s ‘joke’ to fully engage with mitzi, as well as finally having church’s warning start to weigh on him … and then there’s mitzi, who wasn’t faring any better! what with viktor out of commission, asa turning on her, mordecai threatening her, and then having spent most of the afternoon hearing her dead husband’s name be thrown around. in order to hurt her and scare her into obedience, mind you. like, neither were in any state to discuss business or romance!! so it’s no surprise it went poorly. especially when both of them were equally sore and testy during their date.